Use appropriate weapons, this goes specifically for all the idiotic sword WARs. I blame Square Enix for giving WARs the onion sword. Use an axe, or better yet, a great axe! Every job has different caps for different weapons, use the weapons at the highest cap as it makes the weapons more effective that other possible choices.

Know what equipment to buy first. If you're going to be tanking (WAR, PLD) you'll want to buy the most up to date armor first. As NIN tanks shouldn't be taking very much damage because they use their shadows you can usually focus on other things such as STR and attack increase equipment that will increase your damage and help you maintain hate. I've seen many NINs lose hate before their shadows are up because they aren't putting out enough damage to keep it off of the damage dealers.

As a damage dealer, like the ninja, focus on STR and attack increasing equipment as well as the most powerful weapons available. A lot of people like to load up on DEX hoping that it will dramatically increase their accuracy- which it doesn't. The relationship between DEX and acc. is supposedly a curve, so each extra point of DEX becomes less and less effective. Sticking with STR will add that much more damage to your attacks when connect, usually about a damage point per STR point. The only job that really, really needs DEX is the THF as it is directly related to their sneak attack, which they get at L15. At L30 they learn Trick Attack which relies on AGI. So obviously for a thief that's what you want to focus on.

For mages keep up to date on spells. If you can't afford all of them, go with the important spells that you're going to be using. While helpful, at lower levels the bar-ra spells aren't necessary, buy them if you can afford them. Load up on MP increasing equips.

As a WHM you'll want to get as much MND as you can. For a BLM you'll want as much INT as you can. For a RDM, early on you'll probably be stuck as a back-up healer, so MND is a more realistic choice, at least until /BLM becomes viable at the later levels. SMN will *always* sub WHM, so stick with the MND.

For BRD and BST, load up on all the CHR you can. Both will most likely end up subbing WHM, so it's a good idea to get MND in equipment slots where you can't get CHR. For BRD have an array of instruments that will increase the potency of the different types of songs. Like spells, keep up with the necessary songs at all costs, usually you'll end up using certain songs a lot more than others.

That's all for now.